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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMan gets 40 years for pouring boiling water on gay couple
ATLANTA (AP) A judge sentenced a Georgia man to 40 years in prison Wednesday for throwing scalding water on a gay couple sleeping in an apartment, leaving them with severe burns that required surgery.
Jurors deliberated for about 90 minutes before finding Martin Blackwell, 48, guilty of eight counts of aggravated battery and two counts of aggravated assault in the February attack on Anthony Gooden and Marquez Tolbert.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Henry Newkirk said the evidence was overwhelming and that Blackwell had behaved in a soulless and malicious way. He noted that it "takes a long time" for a pot of water to boil.
"You had so many outs where the voice of reason could have taken over," the judge told Blackwell, who had faced up to 80 years in prison.
Prosecutors said it was a vicious, premeditated attack. Tolbert testified that after pouring hot water on them, Blackwell grabbed him as he jumped and screamed in pain and told him: "Get out of my house with all that gay."
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The defense didn't call any witnesses and didn't present any evidence. Blackwell, who remained stoic throughout the trial, did not take the stand. He showed no reaction when the verdict was read.
Blackwell was a long-distance truck driver and lived with his girlfriend, Kim Foster, at her sister's apartment in College Park when he was in town. Gooden, who is Foster's son, and Tolbert had been dating about a month and were sleeping at the apartment Feb. 12 after working an overnight shift when Blackwell dumped scalding water on them.
Blackwell's attorney said her client felt the young men's behavior was disrespectful and that there were certain things people sharing a house shouldn't do.
Jurors deliberated for about 90 minutes before finding Martin Blackwell, 48, guilty of eight counts of aggravated battery and two counts of aggravated assault in the February attack on Anthony Gooden and Marquez Tolbert.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Henry Newkirk said the evidence was overwhelming and that Blackwell had behaved in a soulless and malicious way. He noted that it "takes a long time" for a pot of water to boil.
"You had so many outs where the voice of reason could have taken over," the judge told Blackwell, who had faced up to 80 years in prison.
Prosecutors said it was a vicious, premeditated attack. Tolbert testified that after pouring hot water on them, Blackwell grabbed him as he jumped and screamed in pain and told him: "Get out of my house with all that gay."
---
The defense didn't call any witnesses and didn't present any evidence. Blackwell, who remained stoic throughout the trial, did not take the stand. He showed no reaction when the verdict was read.
Blackwell was a long-distance truck driver and lived with his girlfriend, Kim Foster, at her sister's apartment in College Park when he was in town. Gooden, who is Foster's son, and Tolbert had been dating about a month and were sleeping at the apartment Feb. 12 after working an overnight shift when Blackwell dumped scalding water on them.
Blackwell's attorney said her client felt the young men's behavior was disrespectful and that there were certain things people sharing a house shouldn't do.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/trial-man-accused-boiled-water-attack-continues-080157898.html
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Man gets 40 years for pouring boiling water on gay couple (Original Post)
davidn3600
Aug 2016
OP
"You had so many outs where the voice of reason could have taken over," the judge told Blackwell
Nuclear Unicorn
Aug 2016
#6
snooper2
(30,151 posts)1. Enjoy your time in prison piece of shit
struggle4progress
(118,278 posts)2. There ARE certain things people sharing a house shouldn't do:
pouring boiling water on people, for example
mythology
(9,527 posts)7. Indeed
There are times when I read a statement from a lawyer, defendant or family member of a defendant and I just get gobsmacked at how tone deaf it comes across.
I was recently reading about a rape where the piece of shit had a trial, pled guilty to sexual assault (in this case finding a woman passed out drunk and both vaginally and anally raping her) where after the plea, the defense attorney called his client a "highly moral" person. Because obviously there's nothing morally objectionable about what his client did.
rurallib
(62,406 posts)3. hope there is no time off for good behavior
Eleanors38
(18,318 posts)4. Sounds like he is ready for the Warehouse.
Initech
(100,063 posts)5. What the fucking fuck is wrong with people like that?
Lock that asshole up and throw away the key.
Nuclear Unicorn
(19,497 posts)6. "You had so many outs where the voice of reason could have taken over," the judge told Blackwell